PokerStars.com EPT Copenhagen Day 3: Pierre Neuville Leads Final 24
Day 3 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event came to an end after the 72 players who took their seats in the Casino Copenhagen in the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, each with high hopes of becoming an EPT champion, were whittled down to just 24. Leading the way going into the penultimate day of play is Team PokerStars Pro Pierre Neuville.
Neuville, who has been a regular on the European Poker Tour since 2007, hit his first major cash two years later when he finished second to Antonia Matias in the EPT Vilamoura Main Event for a cool €257,681. Now he has the chance to go one better than that result by taking down this tournament, and he is in pole position to do just that.
When play came to an end, after just over six 75-minute levels of play, Neuville bagged and tagged 780,500 chips, which is quite a remarkable total seeing as how he ended Day 1a armed with just 15,000! On Thursday, he played his usual slow, steady style and was hovering just over the average chip stack until he was involved in the tournament's biggest hand against defending champion Michael Tureniec.
In the hand in question, the blinds were 2,500/5,000/500 and Neuville opened the betting with a raise to 12,000 from under the gun. Tureniec called from the button and Jacob Rasmussen called in the small blind. The flop came down 3♠Q♣2♣ and both Rasmussen and Neuville checked their options to bet. Tureniec fired a bet of 21,500, and Rasmussen called only to see Neuville leap into action and make it 100,000. Tureniec made the call but Rasmussen got out of the way. The turn brought the K♦ into the equation and Neuville led for 100,000, then called as his Swedish opponent moved all-in. Neuville turned over K♥Q♠ to Tureniec's A♣A♦ and when the J♦ fell on the river, Neuville won the hand and rocketed into the chip lead with 975,500 chips!
Neuville even crossed the magical 1,000,000-chip barrier later in the day but lost a couple of sizable pots toward the end of play to find himself with 780,500 chips.
Leading the chasing pack is Alexander Manson with 730,000 chips. Manson won his seat in a satellite tournament on PokerStars and with every player who is eliminated, his return on investment increases. Making up the top five in chips are Aage Floenes Ravn (691,000), Alejandro Sanchez Fernandez (620,500) and Keld Volquardsen (523,500).
When play resumes at 1200 CET (0600 EST) on Thursday, Neuville will be kept company by two of his fellow Team PokerStars Pros, Martin Staszko (432,500) and Team Online's Mickey Petersen.
A special mention has to go to Petersen for what could be the most epic comeback in EPT history. Down to just 7,300 and with blinds of 2,000/4,000/500, Petersen went on a mini-rush, winning a number of consecutive hands and eventually ending the day with a more-than-respectable 451,500 chips!
The plan of action for Day 4 is to play down to the eight-handed final table regardless of how long that should take. Tune into the PokerNews Live Reporting pages on Thursday and follow all the action, as it happens, from the EPT Copenhagen Main Event.
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